Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue eBook

10. This consonant, in latin, never followes
the voual; befoer a, o, u, it keepes alwayes the awn
sound, and befoer e and i breakes it.

11. But with us it may both begin and end the
syllab; as, gang; it may, both behind and befoer,
have either sound; as, get, gist, gin, giant.

12. These the south hath providentlie minted
to distinguish tuo wayes, but hes in deed distinguished
noe way, for the first sum hath used tuo gg; as, egg,
legg, bigg, bagg; for the other dg; as, hedge, edge,
bridge; but these ar not +kata pantos+. Gyles,
nomen viri, can not be written dgiles; nor giles doli,
ggiles; nether behind the voual ar they general; age,
rage, suage, are never wrytten with dg. Quherfoer
I conclud that, seeing nether the sound nor the symbol
hath anie reason to be sundrie, without greater auctoritie,
nor the reach of a privat wit, this falt is incorrigible.

13. Here I am not ignorant quhat a doe the learned
make about the symboles of c, g, k and q, that they
be al symboles, but of one sound; but I wil not medle
in that question, being besyde my purpose, q_uhi_lk
is not to correct the latin symboles, but to fynd the
best use of them in our idiom.

14. T, the last of these misused souldioures,
keepes alwayes it’s aun nature, excep it be
befoer tio; as, oration, declamation, narration; for
we pronunce not tia and tiu as it is in latin.
Onelie let it be heer observed that if an s preceed
tio, the t keepes the awn nature, as in question,
suggestion, etc.

15. Thus have I breeflie handled the letteres
and their soundes, quhilk, to end this parte, I wald
wish the printeres, in their a, b, c, to expresse
thus:—­a, ae, ai, au, ea, b, c, d, e, ee,
ei, eu, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, oa, oo, ou,
p, q, r, s, t, u, ui, v, w, x, y, z, and the masteres
teaching their puples to sound the diphthonges, not
be the vouales quharof they be made, but be the sound
quhilk they mak in speaking; lykwayes I wald have
them name w, not duble u nor v, singl u, as now they
doe; but the last, vau or ve, and the first, wau or
we; and j, for difference of the voual i, written
with a long tail, I wald wish to to be called jod
or je.

OF THE SYLLAB.

Cap. 6.

1. Now followes the syllab, quhilk is a ful sound
symbolized with convenient letteres, and consistes
of ane or moe.

2. A syllab of ane letter is symbolized with
a voual onelie; as, a in able, e in ever, i in idle,
o in over, u in unitie, for a consonant can make no
syllab alane.

3. A syllab of moe letteres is made of vouales
onelie, or els of vouales and consonantes. Of
onlie vouales the syllab is called a diphthong, of
quhilk we have spoaken in the vouales quherof they
ar composed.

4. A syllab of vouales and consonantes either
begin_n_es at the voual, as al, il, el; or at one
consona_n_t, as tal man; or at tuo consona_n_tes,
as stand, sleep; or els at thre at the maest, as strand,
stryp. It endes either at a voual, as fa, fo;
or at one consonant, as ar, er; or at tuo, as best,
dart; or at thre at the maest, as durst, worst.